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The University of Iowa's Computational Epidemiology Group has designed the Vaccine Refused application to allow physicians from different countries to contribute to a database that shows the locations of individuals who refused vaccinations and tracks their reasons why. Determining the regions where more patients refused vaccines could help public health authorities respond to their fears about immunizations, said Don Callaghan, the Iowa Department of Public Health's immunization program bureau chief. Lead app developer Dolan Murphy added that privacy will not be an issue as physicians cannot enter personally identifiable information in the database.

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An FDA-funded study said the agency's Sentinel database and iPod Touch-based app called the Hand-held Automated Notification for Drugs and Immunizations, or HANDI, show promise in monitoring the safety of vaccines and medications used in times of public health emergencies. Researchers said all 21 participants who were vaccinated for seasonal flu were successfully matched to their EHRs through the Sentinel platform and that the information regarding the immunization given to them was 86% accurate.

Health care groups from five counties have collaborated to form the HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania. The HIE's first priorities will be to offer patient information at the point of care and ensure that members of a patient's care team exchange important data. The HIE's implementation goals, which have been provided on its website, are to help all the practitioner members and 90% of hospital members to be connected by the end of 2016.

Dr. Lyle Dennis of Bon Secours Health System has developed the social health network HealthKeep to enable Internet users to anonymously share and receive health information. The network also allows users to build a personal health record and receive data on what they are interested in. In addition, HealthKeep helps users monitor changes in their conditions and communicate with other users and doctors about their symptoms.

Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic announced a data breach affecting around 17,300 patients after it contracted with a third-party vendor in January to convert the North Carolina clinic's X-ray films to an electronic format. The clinic conducted an investigation when the vendor failed to provide the electronic versions of the films in March and discovered the vendor sold the films to an Ohio recycling firm that harvested the X-rays' silver content.

Wearable remote monitoring firm Zephyr Technology said a recent funding round has brought in $2.4 million. Zephyr has developed products such as BioHarness 3 and BioPatch that can be used to monitor vital signs and other health indicators, as well as the ZephyrLife software support package.